Virunga National Park: Africa's Oldest Wonder and the Battle to Save It

Democratic Republic of Congo

By: Evans Kiprotich

A Kingdom Unlike Any Other

Deep in the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo, straddling the volatile eastern frontier where three nations converge, lies one of the most extraordinary places on the African continent: Virunga National Park. Established in 1925 under Belgian colonial rule as Albert National Park, it holds the distinction of being Africa's oldest national park; a fact that alone commands reverence. Yet its age is the least remarkable thing about it.

Spanning approximately 7,800 square kilometres along the western arm of the Great Rift Valley, Virunga is a landscape of almost theatrical extremes. Within its borders, you will find equatorial rainforests dripping with mist; scorching active volcanoes that glow orange against the night sky; vast savannahs that ripple like golden oceans in the afternoon wind; and glaciers clinging to the Rwenzori Mountains as if defying time itself. This is not one ecosystem; this is an entire world compressed into a single park.

Recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, Virunga is not merely celebrated for its scenic grandeur. It is celebrated because it contains more species of birds and mammals than any other protected area in Africa. From the great mountain gorilla brooding in the bamboo forests of the Mikeno sector to the elusive okapi threading through the dense Ituri-adjacent lowlands; from hippos wallowing in the Rwindi plains to thousands of waterbirds assembling on Lake Edward, Virunga pulses with life at every altitude and in every corner.

The Gorillas: Guardians of the Forest

No creature is more synonymous with Virunga than the mountain gorilla. With fewer than 1,100 individuals remaining in the wild; all of them confined to the Virunga Massif shared between the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda, as well as the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda; the mountain gorilla is one of the rarest primates on Earth. Virunga is home to roughly a third of the entire global population, making it their most critical sanctuary.

To encounter a mountain gorilla in the misty forests of Virunga is to experience something that borders on the spiritual. These animals can weigh up to 220 kilograms; yet they move through the forest with a quiet, unhurried dignity that is profoundly humbling. A silverback, the dominant male of his family group, will hold your gaze with dark, intelligent eyes that seem to carry the weight of evolutionary memory. He does not flee; he does not perform. He simply exists, in full possession of his world.

What makes the gorillas of Virunga particularly remarkable is not only their existence but their recovery. In the 1980s, the mountain gorilla population had collapsed to around 250 individuals. Through intensive conservation efforts; anti-poaching patrols, veterinary interventions, community education, and carefully managed gorilla trekking tourism; the population has more than quadrupled. This is one of the few genuine conservation success stories in the world; a testament to what becomes possible when human will is directed toward protection rather than exploitation.

Fire and Ice: The Geology of Extremes

Virunga sits atop the East African Rift, one of the most geologically active zones on the planet; and nowhere is this more dramatically expressed than at Nyiragongo volcano. Rising to 3,470 metres above sea level on the park's southern edge, Nyiragongo hosts the world's largest and most active lava lake: a roiling, churning cauldron of molten rock that has fascinated volcanologists and adventurers alike for over a century.

The lava that fills Nyiragongo's crater is extraordinarily fluid due to its unique chemical composition; low in silica and high in carbonatite minerals. When it erupts, which it has done with devastating effect in 1977, 2002, and most recently in May 2021, it flows at speeds that can exceed 100 kilometres per hour; faster than most people can run. The 2002 eruption was catastrophic: lava poured through the city of Goma, destroying 15 percent of its built area, displacing 350,000 people, and killing dozens.

Yet for all its menace, Nyiragongo is mesmerising. Hikers who make the seven to eight hour ascent to the crater rim are rewarded with one of the most surreal sights in all of Africa: standing at the edge of the world's largest persistent lava lake, watching fire reflected against the night sky, with the stars of the equatorial heavens overhead and the roar of the Earth's interior below. It is the closest most humans will ever come to witnessing the planet's raw creative power.

At the opposite extreme, the Rwenzori Mountains on Virunga's northern edge; sometimes called the Mountains of the Moon by the ancient geographer Ptolemy; carry permanent snowfields and glaciers even as they straddle the equator. These peaks, rising above 5,000 metres, feed rivers and lakes that sustain millions of people and countless animal species. They represent a vanishing world: climate change is retreating these glaciers at an alarming pace, and scientists warn that within decades they may disappear entirely.

Biodiversity: A Living Encyclopedia

Virunga's extraordinary range of habitats; from lowland forest at 680 metres to alpine glaciers above 5,000 metres; creates conditions for biodiversity that are almost unrivalled anywhere on the planet. The park shelters over 700 species of birds, including the African green broadbill, the Grauer's rush warbler, and the Congo peacock; a bird so enigmatic that it was unknown to Western science until 1936. More than 200 mammal species have been recorded within its borders; a figure that rivals many entire countries.

Lake Edward, which marks part of Virunga's southern boundary, is one of the most productive freshwater bodies in Africa. Its waters teem with Nile tilapia and other fish species; supporting enormous populations of pelicans, cormorants, and kingfishers, as well as Nile crocodiles and hippopotami that lumber along its muddy banks. During migration seasons, the open savannahs of the Rwindi Plains host herds of buffalo, Uganda kob, topi, and warthog; drawing cheetah, lion, and leopard in their wake.

The forest zones are equally rich: forest elephants move silently through the undergrowth of the lowland sectors; chimpanzees call through the canopy of the Tongo forest; and the diminutive forest buffalo vanishes into thickets that still hide pockets of life unknown to science. Botanists continue to discover new plant species in Virunga's most remote corners; a reminder that this park, for all its fame, still holds secrets.

Conservation Under Fire: The Courage to Protect

To understand Virunga's conservation story is to understand something profound about human courage and sacrifice. No protected area in the world operates under more difficult conditions. Since the 1990s, eastern DRC has been convulsed by successive waves of armed conflict: the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, the two Congo Wars, and a persistent insurgency by dozens of armed groups including the FDLR, ADF, M23, and many others. Virunga sits at the epicentre of this violence.

The park's rangers; known locally as eco-guards; are the frontline of its defence. Since 1996, more than 200 rangers have been killed in the line of duty, making Virunga the most dangerous conservation posting in the world. These men and women patrol some of the most volatile terrain on the continent, facing not only armed militias but also poachers, illegal charcoal traders, and land encroachment from communities desperate for resources. They do this for salaries that are modest by any international standard; motivated not by money but by an extraordinary commitment to the land and its creatures.

The charcoal trade represents one of the most insidious threats to the park. Forests are cleared and burned to produce charcoal for cooking fuel; a practice that destroys gorilla habitat and drives deforestation at a devastating rate. Much of this illegal trade is controlled by armed groups who use it to fund their operations; creating a direct link between deforestation and armed conflict. Addressing this single issue requires solutions that span ecology, economics, politics, and security simultaneously.

The Virunga Alliance, the conservation body that manages the park, has taken a boldly innovative approach to the challenge. Recognising that conservation cannot succeed in a vacuum of poverty, the Alliance has invested heavily in community development: building hydroelectric power stations that bring clean, affordable electricity to villages that previously relied on charcoal; training and employing local people as rangers, guides, and park staff; and developing tourism infrastructure that funnels revenue directly into surrounding communities. The philosophy is simple but revolutionary: if local people benefit from a living park, they will protect it.

The micro-hydro programme has been particularly transformative. Small power stations on park rivers now supply electricity to over 100,000 households in the Virunga region; reducing dependence on charcoal by an estimated 60 percent in connected communities. For a family that previously spent a third of its income on charcoal, access to clean electricity is not merely convenient; it is life-changing. And for the gorillas and the forests they depend on, it is potentially the difference between survival and extinction.

Oil, Politics, and a Park at a Crossroads

In recent years, Virunga has faced a new and formidable threat: oil. Geological surveys have indicated the presence of significant hydrocarbon deposits beneath the park and its surrounding area, including beneath Lake Edward. The DRC government has granted exploration licences to oil companies; a development that has triggered international outcry from conservationists, scientists, and the broader public.

The stakes could not be higher. Oil extraction in and around Virunga would risk catastrophic contamination of Lake Edward; poisoning the fisheries that feed hundreds of thousands of people, destroying the wetlands that support its extraordinary birdlife, and introducing industrial infrastructure into one of Africa's last great wilderness areas. Critics argue that the long-term value of a healthy Virunga; in terms of tourism revenue, water security, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity; far exceeds any short-term gains from oil extraction.

This debate encapsulates the central tension of conservation in the developing world: the collision between immediate economic need and long-term ecological survival. The DRC is one of the poorest countries on Earth despite sitting atop extraordinary natural wealth; a cruel paradox known as the resource curse. Finding a path that honours both the rights of its people to development and the irreplaceable value of its natural heritage is one of the defining conservation challenges of our time.

A Future Worth Fighting For

Despite every obstacle; the armed groups, the poachers, the political pressures, the oil companies, the climate crisis; Virunga endures. The gorilla population continues to grow. The forests continue to stand. The lava lake continues to burn. And the rangers continue to walk their patrols, day after day, in a landscape that demands everything of them.

What Virunga represents, at its most essential, is a choice. It is a choice about what kind of world we want to inhabit; whether we are willing to protect the wild and extraordinary places that remain, or whether we will surrender them one by one to short-term interest. It asks whether a silverback gorilla sitting in morning mist has value beyond what can be extracted from him; whether a lava lake glowing against a night sky matters; whether the Mountains of the Moon deserve to keep their snow.

The people of Virunga; the rangers, the community members, the scientists, and the guides; have already made their choice. They have decided, at great personal cost, that this park is worth protecting. The question the rest of the world must answer is whether it will stand with them. Because Virunga is not merely the DRC's treasure; it belongs, in the deepest sense, to all of humanity: a reminder that the Earth is still capable of breathtaking wildness, still alive with creatures and landscapes that dwarf anything we could ever build.

To visit Virunga; to stand on the rim of Nyiragongo, or to kneel in silence before a mountain gorilla; is to understand why conservation is not an optional luxury. It is a moral imperative. And Virunga, ancient, battered, and magnificent, is its greatest argument.